Mi-8 crash near Preobrazhenka

The Mi-8 crash near Preobrazhenka was an aviation accident that occurred on 6 May 2013 involving a Mi-8T helicopter in Katangsky District of Irkutsk Oblast, 6 kilometres from the village of Preobrazhenka. The Mi-8T of the airline Angara departed from Kirensk for the village of Preobrazhenka. Near the village the helicopter exploded in the air and fell onto the ice. None of the 9 passengers survived.

Crash

The helicopter was being used for flood-prevention measures, during which the terrain was inspected and ice was blasted. It was flown by a crew consisting of the commander (aircraft commander) I. A. Markov, instructor pilot A. V. Zhizhelev and flight engineer A. V. Kulebyakin. There were also 6 passengers on board:

Stanislav Aleksandrovich Omelyanchik — acting head of the Main Directorate of the Russian Emergencies Ministry for Irkutsk Oblast;

Aleksandr Ilyich Stepanov — deputy head of the Baikal search and rescue unit;

Yury Nikolayevich Kashko — head of the Northern search and rescue unit of the Irkutsk Oblast rescue service;

Sergei Alekseyevich Pezhemsky — rescuer and blasting specialist of the Northern search and rescue unit;

Igor Nikolayevich Chekrygin — chief specialist of the regional state institution "Civil Defence and Emergencies Centre";

Sergei Mikhailovich Arbatsky — instructor of the airborne firefighting service of the Kirensk branch of Irkutsk Oblast.

In addition, there were also 1.9 tonnes of explosives in the helicopter.

At 10:05 local time the helicopter departed from Kirensk airport and at 14:30 landed at a helipad near the R-111 "Chonskaya" drilling rig. At 15:01 the Mi-8 took off from this site and headed to Katangsky District, to the village of Preobrazhenka, where the Nizhnyaya Tunguska River had burst its banks and flooded 125 houses. After this the crew made no further contact. At 19:30 the wrecked helicopter was found on the ice of the river 6 kilometres from the village of Preobrazhenka. All 9 people on board were killed.